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Thanks Cangore, that's absolutely invaluable feedback. I will certainly be using it, and here are some of my return thoughts if you're interested in reading a short essay (lol).

• One of your most brilliant points is dead on: Now that Plaits is in, I can take out the 1U Osc. Good point calling them both "utility oscillators", which is my thinking also. But since Plaits is 100x the utility voice that 1U Osc is, and I have plenty of modulation sources (don't particulaly need the 1U Osc in LFO mode either) so that 1U space could be better used. I'm excited about this one!

• I thought about flipping the case, but two reasons I won't. Aesthetically, it bugs me having everything upside down. But more importantly, in my (current) layout at the end of this post I have the specific design goal of the most hands-on modules around the edges left, bottom, and right of the case.

Then the big "central hub spots" for cables spaghetti like Veils, Batumi, Stages, Links, and the output mixing are in the center/top right. It's like that less-accessible area of the case is just magnetically sucking all the cable spaghetti towards it, which is exactly what I'm going for. Just look at the density of jacks starting from Links all the way to Desmodus, it's glorious!! Hehe.

From experience in how I patch, and the tight areas in my current system where EVERYTHING always ends up getting patched together, this layout should hopefully contain the worst of the dense cable spaghetti up and away from my main control area!! Very excited about the thought I've put into this cable management!

• With Steppy, I already own the 3U version so that's why it's not in the 1U row. I also would prefer the 1U setup, but it's only a slight difference to me and not worth buying a second Steppy at the moment. My experience using the 3U Steppy is that it's very hard to use when covered with cables, but as long as it's relatively on the outside of the system somewhere, it's easy enough to get to. I'll be using Steppy to set up event programming, clock divisions, triggers etc, but probably not much for live performance.

• Highly unsure about dropping Noise Tools - feel it brings a lot of simple utility without too much overlap of the other stuff. Then again, Marbles does have a clock, and there's definitely "thematic appeal" to making Marbles the main clock of the system. I think it would need to be replaced cause it brings: 1x slew, 1x track and hold, Simple noise source, 1x simple random source - all things that I can cover with other modules, but it's still a lot in a small 1U package :)

• Peaks and Kinks. Oh, I wish - I desperately want both. I've been looking for a surprisingly long time without finding either one available to buy. I'll get one of each eventually (I hope!). If done with a clone, it's no problem and would save space - but obviously to fit the theme of this system, it's ideal to use the origianls.

• Delta-V vs Batumi in this case, I would be SO interested to have someone with experience weigh in with Pros and Cons on this one.

• Quantizer (Bard Quartet): Good question. To me it seems so small for what it provides ^_^ Why it's in there:

So, I've got a Quantizer fetish and think this is the perfect Quantizer module for this system. Marbles is great but not enough separate channels for some types of patches. I like having a keyboard for programming (not performance in this case, which is why it needs to be accessible at the edge but not necessarily "playable"). Also, having the option for keyboard-programmed, harmonically-unified Quanitization across 4 voices (and even a pseudo CV-controlled "song mode") gives me an enormous amount of traditional tonal control over the system in just 10HP.

Supposedly I'm classically trained in Western music too, so having this small 10hp concession to "traditional harmonic control" feels worth it to me as an alternate way of interacting with the system.

Note - I could be wrong, but my research indicates Plaits does NOT have a quantizer (although Braids did (?) removed because Emilie thought it was overloaded (?) Don't quote me.). So I think you might be mistaken on that front but apologies if not.

For anyone keeping track, here's the current state of the design before incorporating Cangore's feedback:

Cangore, I'll take your ideas and start working on the next revision to share here when I think I've got something!

EDITED May 13th 2022, 16:18